Reminiscing about the old tube tester at Bob's Electronics in Cleveland

I had a 1980s Sony Trinitron come in last week from a guy who wanted it fixed for his retro gaming setup. The flyback transformer had gone bad, and I spent a solid 90 minutes trying to source a replacement from my junk pile. It got me thinking about how we used to just swap tubes in the old days with that B&K 747 tester at Bob's shop back in 2005. Anyone else miss those simpler troubleshooting days before everything went surface mount?

3 comments

3 Comments

king.wyatt18d ago

Man, "simpler troubleshooting days" hits hard. I still remember digging through my grandpa's old tube stash to fix a busted radio. Nothing beats that feeling of just swapping a tube and watching it light up again.

henderson.vera18d ago

Funny you mention that, a buddy of mine tried the same thing with his dad's old TV once. He spent all Sunday swapping tubes and finally got a picture, but the sound was still all scratchy. Turned out he'd knocked the antenna connection loose while he was back there, fixed it in two seconds and felt like a genious.

dianal9415d ago

One time my uncle tried fixing his old Philco radio, spent like three hours swapping tubes and cleaning contacts, only to realize the speaker cone had a tear the size of a dime. He never did figure out how to patch it. @henderson.vera, did your buddy ever get that scratchy sound sorted out after the antenna fix or did he just live with it?